Category Archives: Volunteer organizations

Federal Diary: Head of Suicide Prevention Program Gets Top Honor Among Those Recognized for Service – washingtonpost.com

Federal Diary: Head of Suicide Prevention Program Gets Top Honor Among Those Recognized for Service – washingtonpost.com.

Janet Kemp, a nurse with over 20 years’ experience with the Department

Janet Kemp of the DVA - photo by Sam Kittner/WashingtonPost

of Veterans Affairs (The Veterans Administration, or “V.A.”, for those of us old enough to remember Watergate or television without cable) set up the Veterans Suicide Prevention Hotline – in July 2007, which is credited with preventing 5,000 suicides.

Kemp said she regretted that the 500 employees working full time on suicide prevention could not share the award with her.

“It’s humbling,” she said. “It doesn’t happen by yourself. Nothing you do in the government you do alone.”

Steve Vogel’s piece in this morning’s Washington Post – Head of Suicide Prevention Program Gets Top Honor Among Those Recognized for Service also covers awards to other federal employees whose work is worth mentioning in this space

The Citizen Services Medal was awarded to Michael German, national team leader at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, who created state and local agency partnerships that are credited with contributing to a 30 percent reduction in long-term homelessness.

Don Burke and Sean P. Dennehy of the Central Intelligence Agency together were awarded the Homeland Security Medal for their work promoting “Intellipedia,” a Wikipedia-like repository of intelligence meant to improve information sharing across the intelligence community.

The Environment Medal went to Allan Comp, a program analyst in the Office of Surface Mining at the Department of Interior, for building a network of volunteers to assist Appalachian coal country communities and to address environmental problems in the West’s hard-rock mining region.

Thanks to the Washington Post

for covering this.

DOJ reverses position that emergency response is “routine;” had attempted to deny death benefits to firefighter’s widow

“Firefighter’s Widow to Get Death Benefits,” The New York Times, November 23rd:

Since her firefighter husband died of a heart attack nearly four years ago after responding to an emergency, Kathleen Shea has not received any death benefits, despite a 2003 federal law that indicated she was entitled to them.

But this week she learned that in a reversal, the Department of Justice had determined that she was entitled to benefits under the Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act. The law extends federal benefits to the survivors of firefighters, police officers and other first responders who die of heart attacks or strokes while on duty.

Ms. Shea lives in Elsmere, N.Y., southwest of Albany, where her husband served as the volunteer fire chief.

The Department of Justice had denied benefits to Ms. Shea and scores of other families around the country, arguing that language in the law indicated they were ineligible because their family members died during routine activities.

But Senator Charles E. Schumer, the New York Democrat who sponsored the original legislation introduced by Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, helped Ms. Shea and other families appeal the decisions because he said responding to an emergency was “inherently nonroutine.”

So far, all four appeals have resulted in benefits for families, but nearly 40 more families still have to go through the process.